Every sway and breeze brought in the spores of the toxic jungle. Nausicaa dared to be willful at times, taking off her gas mask to build a possible immunity to the jungle vapors. Indeed, the toxic jungle was saturated with particles of light, painted in brilliance and color. Not far off from the edge of the deep and magnificent forest she stood in was, the ruins of the old world. These dilapidated skeletons of homesteads long past, now sat erect as high as behemoth metal ghosts. But even these giant structures were dwarfed by the sheer vastness of the ever-growing toxic jungle. Its wondrous might stood both feral and placid, delivering a fantastic world where evolution had gone wild – wild, yes; but beautiful in so many ways.

Wide lakes were strewn far below the coral-like stems of polyps and fungal trees that grew so high, that it seemed they dared to touch the gods. Spongy growths of wispy fibers and stretchy mosses inundated with grand hues of rich colors kept the jungle alight with paranormal luminescence. Nausicaa relished each ray of light, each sparkle of bioluminescent life, for these were the things that made life miraculous. However her admiration for the grandest viverium on the planet was suddenly thwarted. A loud bang was heard some place in the shadowy distance of the cavernous jungle. The wily princess peered toward the tropic’s edge and saw a massive Ohmu breaking through the natural barriers of stiff terrestrial corals.

“Oh, it’s an Ohmu. He’s huge, but angry.” Nausicaa took note. “His eyes are red; there must be wanderers in the jungle, ones that have molested some of the insects.”

She quickly leapt over a small swarm of blue beetles and set upon her cloud-climber. An instant later, a golden pulse of heated wind propelled her into the evening sky. The jet sent her gliding though the reddening sunset and high over the speeding Ohmu below. There, just barely keeping a lead from the rushing Ohmu, three men riding bipedal ground birds did their best to avoid the oncoming barrage of Ohmu pedipalps.

Nausicaa reached into her skirted pocket and retrieved a whistle on a long string. She began whirring it through the air in a circular pattern, and like some aged magician’s trick, the enormous Ohmu began to cease its chase. The gigantic arthropod’s eyes began to change hue, finally settling in the normal blue shade of their pasture nature. Nausicaa had saved lives again, but at what cost? Would these newcomers ever respect the toxic jungle as they should? The young princess did not yet know, for the world she lived in was changing – changing as much as the vibrant jungle that dared to reclaim the world.

LOG #2
Nausicaa: A Tale From Lord Yupa

Dust - dry, white, ashy dust. Lord Yupa’s boots trekked through a three-inch layer of flakey ash as he led Princess Nausicaa toward the remains of a battered village. It was old; the wooden frames of the rounded huts already had sapling fungus sprouting from them. Large windmills that once directed fresh air to the hamlet had been twisted and rotted by spore-ridden currents of blustery weather. Yupa, with his long beard and yokel-looking hat turned to the spry form of Nausicaa, who was busy studying a small group of caterpillars with rich metallic colors.

“I wouldn’t get too close to them, Princess – those larvas can deliver a powerful sting.” He warned.

Yupa was a man of the wilderness. His extensive travels were long heralded by the continent’s remaining pockets of civilization. Some rumors claimed that he knew more about the toxic jungle and even more about the dreaded Seven Days of Fire than anyone alive. As a child, Nausicaa would dream of gigantic eerie phantoms that stalked the earth, scorching the very planet with their horrific fiery lances. Sometimes, she’d scream, startled by the visionary nightmares of yonder years, but many times, Lord Yupa was there to comfort her.

“Princess, what are you doing?!” Yupa gawked as she was holding a crawling handful of the venomous caterpillars.

“Don’t worry, Yupa – They won’t hurt me, I can feel them. They know I wouldn’t hurt them.” Nausicaa quipped as she set the worm-like larva near a patch of rippling red mushrooms.

Lord Yupa considered her actions and scratched the scruff of his beard in curiosity. He’d seen Nausicaa grow to know the insects of the toxic jungle in ways that men could not understand. He knew she was special, a young woman to whom nature had blessed with bravery and empathy…and these were values far too rare among the post-apocalyptic era they lived in. Upon entering the dilapidated hut, just barely remaining erect and swayed by the winds from afar, Nausicaa asked Yupa a puzzling question.

EDGE“Lord Yupa, who built the steel ruins? You know, the ruins past the Tolmekian strongholds.”

Yupa stopped and adjusted his gasmask, clearly thinking back to a time far off.

“They were our ancestors, people who bred a wealth of odd sorcery – they called it technology, or so say the old ones.” He answered with a benign giggle.

Nausicaa craned her head to one side, conjuring another question.

“They didn’t like the toxic jungle either, did they?”

This time Yupa knelt down to explain further and with greater intimacy.

“This may be hard for you to understand, young one; but the toxic jungle in those days long past was a very frightening thing to the great glass and steel villages of yore. That’s why they sought to burn it down. Unfortunately, not much has changed from then. People still fear what they don’t understand.”

“But I understand, Yupa.” Nausicaa replied. “I think it is fear that drives people to do rash things. The Ohmu know this, too. …They know what fearful humans are capable of, this is why they protect the biofauna of the toxic jungle as best they could.”

Lord Yupa looked deep into her eyes and saw a glimpse of wisdom far exceptional for a girl her age. Nausicaa then asked him a question he once dreaded to answer.

“Yupa, did the fear of men make the Seven Days of Fire?”

He stood up and raised his head towards the misty skies above him. There, a myriad of multiple-winged insects as large as small planes glided across the azure clouds.

“It’s not that simple, Nausicaa – but in some ways it is. Yes, fear is what drove the fires.” Lord Yupa explained gingerly.

“But times are changing, Princess; perhaps soon others will learn to view the toxic jungle as you do…with care and understanding.”